The duo of thrashing guitars by guitarist Alex Edkins, with the distortion turned up to literally 13, and the gritty and fuzzed-up of the bass by bassist Chris Slorach, in addition to the loud, yet confident drums by percussionist Hayden Menzies in their opening song “The Swimmer” gave a cool and good preview of what I was going to witness for the night.

METZ Live @ This Town Needs (Picture left to right: Edkins, Menzies, Slorach) – May 29, 2018. Picture by Elliott Wan

As everyone started to warm up, a mosh pit soon formed at the introduction to the second song of the gig by lead singer Alex Edkins: “If you want to move forward and party with us, now’s the time to fucking do it,” he yelled as he strummed the intro to their next song, “Mess of Wires”.

Even as METZ are playing at a venue some 8,000 miles away from the US President, Trump still got a mention in the introduction to “Mr. Plague”, the 6th track off their latest album Strange Peace.

Guitarist Alex Edkins on stage with METZ @ This Town Needs – May 29, 2018. Picture by Elliott Wan

Casual fans of the band (which I was) were in for a treat for the latter half of the gig – favourites such as “Acetate”, “Cellophane”, and “Wet Blanket” were all played, with “Wet Blanket” being the encore of the gig.

Having ringing in your ears for the next day or two because of loud music isn’t something anyone would like – but with METZ, it may just be worth it.

METZ. Picture by Ebru Yildiz

Formed 2008 in Ontario, Canada, METZ have been steadily bringing chaos and noise to the rock scene everywhere. Upon the release of their third album, Strange Peace, in November 2018, they have since embarked on a 7-month long tour. Tour dates can be found here.